Today
by XDracoMalfoysGirlX
Summary: For one long year Luna had been waiting for his return, he said he would return today and finally today had come.


**A/N: For inlovewithlaughing's one shot a day challenge. **

**Quote:** **"Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter." -Mark Twain **

Today

She stood on the bridge in the cold, her cheeks red and her dirty blonde hair blowing about her. The water below her was dark, rushing along over the rocks and logs, roaring on its way to nowhere while she stood there waiting.

She had been waiting for the longest time it seemed, but Luna was a patient person and believed that if something was worth having it was worth waiting for. And so she waited.

Still, her sorrow was a tangible thing; it grieved Luna to have lost so much time through no choice of her own. But, she smiled and looked down at the letter in her hands, today was the last day she would have to wait. Today was the first of the rest of her life as they saying went. Today he was returning to her.

The letter had been written long ago, at least to Luna's young mind it had. The waiting had made it seem like an age, but in reality a year wasn't all that long. They said that time flew by when a person was in love, but to Luna it had dragged by following their tearful departure. Tearful on her part at least, the pain had been almost unbearable but he had not relented, would not relent no matter how much she had begged him to stay and tried to explain that the way she felt towards him was real and the two of them together was not a mistake.

Being older than she was he taken it upon himself to leave, he had sent her a letter in due course promising to return today, a year later, and if she still felt the same, if she had found no-one else to replace him then he would stay.

Luna had lived every day eagerly anticipating today. She felt as though everything she had been doing had been leading up to today. So many things to tell him, so many things to hear about; most of all his acceptance of her feelings, of their feelings for each other and admitting he had been wrong.

It was probably a sign of her frightening ability (frightening at least to other people), to read people and understand them that Luna did understand his desire to run away from what had been growing between them; he had spent his life running away and avoiding people, keeping people at arms-length. She didn't blame him, had felt only an initial bout of anger that he would run from her; if she had lived the life he had of being a social outcast then maybe she wouldn't have reacted any differently.

Oh Luna knew what it was like to be on the outside of everything, people at Hogwarts thought she was odd, strange "loony"; only Harry had given her a chance not minding that she was different just as his father had given Remus a chance not minding that he was different.

She was loony, he was a werewolf. People avoided both of them for the same reasons; because they scared people with their differences. It surprised Luna sometimes that Remus didn't see that.

The sound of footsteps coming towards her caught Luna's attention; her heart beat a little faster and she became a little short of breath. He was here, Today had come.

She felt him come up beside her and rest his arms on the wooden railing of the bridge. He stared down at the churning water for a full minute before he looked at her. "You look…..warm." He spoke haltingly, his eyes taking in her purple bobble hat, thick scarf, beige coat and woolly mittens.

Luna smiled brightly at him. "I am warm."

Was it a testament to her strange habit of reading people that she understood why he found it so difficult to speak, or was it just that she understood him? Luna liked to think it was a little bit of both. He had been gone for a year, she may be there to tell him she had found someone else; Luna shook her head slightly, how could he even think that? There was no-one like him.

"You look well, Remus."

"So do you."

"Nothing's changed you know." Luna spoke simply and truthfully as was her way and Remus was slightly taken off guard, he hadn't seen her in a long time and he had forgotten how straightforward and honest she could be. There were no games with Luna, no hidden message, she said what she thought whether people wanted to hear it or not. He liked that about her.

"No," Remus agreed carefully, his dark hair blowing across his forehead and into his eyes. He pushed it back with an impatient gesture. "I'm still a werewolf."

"One night a month," she said cheerfully. "I'm loony every day."

"I still don't have any money." Why didn't she see that he wasn't right for her? Why didn't she tell him that there was someone new in her life so he could walk away in peace?

"Money can't buy the important things in life."

She could be so infuriating! Remus had returned to her because he said that he would, and because he knew he couldn't stay away any longer; he had missed her, the brightness in his otherwise dark and dreary life. But he wasn't right for her, she was smart, surely she could see that? He could see it. Remus also knew that he was incapable of walking away unless she told him to.

He played his last card, his one last reason why they shouldn't be together. "I'm still older than you."

Luna looked at him then, her large silvery blue eyes shining. "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

Remus smiled, he took her hand in his, the wool of the mitten soft and warm against his wind cracked skin. He turned his attention back to the water, content just to stand with her in the biting wind for a while; she warmed his heart, chased the chill of loneliness away and Remus wasn't cold anymore.

This was what bliss felt like, Luna thought as she too turned her attention to the river with a bright smile of joy on her face; Today had finally arrived.


End file.
